The Mysterious Strangers
by Solarengo
Summary: Aang and the others are searching for food when they encounter two young girls unconscious in the forest. Who are these strangers? What happened to them? And why do they refuse to reveal what type of benders they are? Read to find out.
1. First Encounter

**Chapter One**

Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph set up camp for the night. Momo scrambled around looking for food. Aang's stomach rumbled. Momo looked up curiously, then jumped up on Aang's shoulder.

"I'm hungry too, Momo," he said, "but until we set up camp, we can't go find food." Momo stared at him.

"Done!" Sokka cried out triumphantly a few seconds later. "Finally! Now, can we please go get dinner? I'm starving!"

Katara rolled her eyes and sighed. Appa was laying down a few feet away. She walked over to him and petted his long fur. He yawned, his hot breath covering Sokka.

"Ew! Appa breath!" Sokka cried out, disgusted. Katara and Toph laughed. Aang grinned wildly as his stomach growled again.

"Well, I think we should go and find food. Sokka and Toph go one way, and Katara and I will go this way," Aang stated confidently. The rest of the group nodded. Then they split up into different directions. Aang was secretly thrilled that he had gotten his way and was able to be alone with Katara. After a few steps, they decided to search the bushes.

Suddenly, Katara screamed. Aang raced over to her side. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked frantically. She pointed shakily to something beyond the bushes. He gasped as he saw what she was pointing to.

Staggering towards them was a young girl with blue hair and brown eyes holding another smaller girl with fire-red hair in her arms. She was breathing heavily, and the girl in her arms looked dead. After a few short steps, she collapsed to the ground. Aang ran over to her, Katara close behind.

"We have to get them back to camp! Can you carry one?" Aang asked, his blue eyes bright with worry.

Katara nodded. "I think so," she said, her voice wavering. She bent down and picked up the blue-haired girl in her arms. "Yes. She's not heavy. What about the other one?"

"I'll carry her, I guess. She seems like she needs to get help as soon as possible. Do you mind if I run ahead?" he asked, his eyes concentrated on her face. She bit her lip before saying yes. He nodded and ran like the wind back towards camp.

She ran as fast as she could after him carrying the blue-haired girl in her arms, thinking all the while _"What if they're Fire Nation... What do we do then?"._ When she got back to camp, Aang was already there with Sokka. They were both bent over the girl. Katara laid the other girl down next to the redhead. "Here," she panted. "Can I help?"

Toph replied first. "Use your healing hands! See if you can find what's wrong with them." Katara nodded grimly.

Placing her hands over the redhead's chest, she concentrated hard and didn't notice as the others walked away quietly. A few hours later, Katara walked over to the group, sweating buckets.

"It's done," she gasped. "They'll be okay now. I don't know what happened to them, but they should be conscious by tomorrow." The others nodded. Katara walked over to her tent and practically fell into her sleeping bag. The others followed her example and went to sleep.


	2. Awakenings

**Chapter Two**

Sun shone through the flaps of the tent as Katara sleepily opened her eyes. Yawning, she quickly dressed and hurried outside. Aang was still asleep, and Sokka was looking at the two mysterious girls who were apparently still sleeping. She was about to go wake Aang when one of the girls stirred. Sokka jumped up, startled. The blue-haired girl blinked her eyes open slowly to see Sokka and Katara staring down at her. Her eyes widened, and she tried to leap to her feet. However, she was too exhausted, and her leap to freedom resulted in her falling back to the ground with a thump. She settled with crawling on her hands and knees over to the other girl and sitting next to her occasionally glaring up at Sokka and Katara.

Sokka looked at Katara and willed her to speak. Before she could say anything though, Aang walked out of his tent at the same time Toph walked out of hers.

"So she's awake," Toph stated rather than asked. Aang was startled at the sight of the blue-haired girl sitting next to the redhead. "Has she talked yet?"

"No," Katara said, shaking her head. The blue-haired girl rolled her eyes before she caught sight of the Avatar. Her eyes widened, and her jaw almost dropped before she could get herself back under control.

"So, we're still not sure if they're from the Fire Nation then?" Aang asked… or rather started to ask before the blue-haired girl spat at the ground.

"Fire Nation?! Is that what you think we are?" the girl cried out angrily. "I'd rather be broiled alive than be with the Fire Nation!"

A stunned silence filled the camp. "Well, at least we know that she's not Azula," Sokka said, making a half-hearted attempt at a joke. The girl glared at him before resuming her silent position next to the other girl.

"Is…" Katara started to say. "Is she going to be alright?" she asked pointing to the redhead.

"Yeah, she's just sleeping it off," the girl answered haughtily.

"Are you sure she's not hurt or anything? I mean, no offense, but you don't look like the type that would know anything about healing…" Sokka said hesitantly.

"Of course I'm sure! Only you would be ignorant of the powers of sisterhood, you bumbling buffoon!" the girl barked back.

"Hey!" Sokka exclaimed.

"So you two are sisters?" Aang intervened before Sokka could say anything else. The girl looked over to him and nodded.

"Yes." With that short reply, she looked away and didn't talk until lunch. When they tried to carry her over to where they were eating, she protested loudly saying that she could walk and that they needn't carry her like she was a helpless infant. In the end, she let herself be carried over, her legs dangling useless in the air. Katara gently set her down and hurried over to sit next to Toph with Sokka.

They ate lunch in silence, broken only by Appa's loud eating habits. Suddenly, the redhead moaned softly. The blue-haired girl dropped her lunch and crawled over to the redhead as best as she could on hands and knees. Sitting by her head, she stroked the other girl's hair, murmuring, "Ardere… Are you okay? Come on, answer me, Ardere…"

Toph hurried over to them followed by Aang and Katara. Sokka hesitated then followed behind. The redhead opened her eyes, which turned out to be brown with a twinge of red in them.

"Wha-?" she mumbled as she started to sit up only to be pushed back down by the blue-haired girl. "Seraphina? Is that you? Where… Where are we?"

"Yes, it's me," Seraphina answered, her blue hair swinging over her shoulders. She pushed it back behind her ears impatiently. "Ardere, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. But where are we?" Ardere asked in a half-whisper. She sat up slowly and reached up to push her hair out of her eyes, revealing the skin on her arms as she did so. The group gasped. The redhead was badly burned on both arms; the red markings twisted around her arms like a snake.

"Who are you? What happened?" blurted out Aang.

"What is it?" Toph asked, sensing Katara's heartbeat speed up when she saw the girl's burns. They ignored her.

"The Fire Nation happened, that's what," spat Seraphina. "Now if you'll excuse us, we'd like a bit of privacy."

"Sure," Toph said, putting up an Earth tent around them and walking back to her lunch. Katara, Aang, and Sokka shrugged and walked back after Toph.

--------------------------------

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!! Here's a BIG hand to Twilight Rose2!!!!!!! SOOOOOO AWESOME!!!! Thanks for all the help! I'm not sure if this is fixed yet, but it's a start. I changed the names and stuff. Soooooo, yeah. Thanks!

Sunny


	3. Truth Revealed

**Chapter Three**

The next few days, the mysterious girls kept to themselves while Toph, Aang, Katara, and Sokka went about their business, having no heart to leave the girls there alone. Seraphina was regaining the use of her legs and could often be seen stumbling around camp, glaring at anyone who happened to look at her. Ardere was still unable to move very much, and she didn't talk to anyone but her sister.

Three days after they had found Seraphina and Ardere, Toph blew up. She stalked over to Ardere and Seraphina who were talking quietly amongst themselves. They looked up as she came over to them.

"I'm sick of all this whispering! Why won't you talk to anyone else but yourselves?" Toph practically shouted. Aang looked up from his meditation, and Katara peeked out of the tent to see what the ruckus was about. "We just saved your lives back there, and how do you repay us? By whispering behind our backs and not telling us what the heck is going on!"

Katara walked up behind Toph. "Ardere, Seraphina, what Toph means is that she would appreciate it if you would tell us who you were and what happened to you two back there. I'm sure that we all would like that," she added.

"No, what Toph means is tell us what's going on or scoot your butts out of here!" Toph shouted, stomping her foot on the ground and causing the rock Sokka was sitting on to jump 5 feet in the air. Sokka yelped loudly in the background.

"Toph…" Katara started. "Be nice. They aren't going to tell us anything if you're mean like that."

"Sure we will," Seraphina said, surprising everyone who was listening. "I'm glad you guys finally got up the courage to ask us. I was beginning to think that you all were a bunch of spineless jellyfish." Ardere laughed a whispery laugh that almost turned into a cough.

"So… You'll tell us what happened?" Aang asked hopefully, coming to stand next to Toph and Katara, followed by Sokka.

"Of course. Sit down, this may be a little bit of a shock… Or not," she added. They obliged and sat in a circle with the sisters.

"Well… I suppose you know that I'm Seraphina, and my sister is Ardere. Skipping that, I suppose you would like to know what happened to us. Well, a few months ago, almost year actually, my sister and I decided to go our separate ways…" she started. "See, we were trying to find the Avatar, which is you obviously, and we thought that it would be best if we split up for a while. Well, a few days after we split up, Ardere, here, was captured by the Fire Nation…" she paused. "Ardere would you like to tell this part?"

"Sure. Well, they took me by surprise. I didn't stand a chance against them; they had 10 fire benders with them. They overpowered me. That part is a little fuzzy though; the next thing I remember is waking up in some fortress or something, all chained up with no way to escape. They tried to torture me into saying where I thought the Avatar was. Unfortunately for them, I had no idea at that time. After about a month or so, they gave up and just left me chained in that room all day every day, only popping in once a day to give me food. Seraphina?" She said, turning the story over to her sister.

"Well, a month after we split up, I got worried. We were supposed to have met up by then, yet I hadn't seen any trace of her. When word got out that she was chained up in the Fire Nation, I set off to find her. A few weeks went by without any trace of Ardere, and I began to lose hope of ever finding her. Finally, I found the fortress." Looking at Aang she said, "You might recognize it, Aang, seeing as you were kept there for a while before being rescued by the Blue Spirit." Aang's eyes widened, but he remained silent. "Continuing on, I decided that I would try to play hero and break into the fortress and save her. That did _**not **_work out as planned; I was captured as we made a break for it."

"Then it was back to our own little solitary prison rooms where we were kept in chains for around 6-7 months. They tried torturing the Avatar's whereabouts out of Seraphina, but she didn't know where you were," Ardere continued where Seraphina left off.

"To this day, I hate it when people use whips on animals…" Seraphina intervened. The others looked aghast at this method of punishment.

"Did they… Your legs…?" Sokka stuttered, shocked.

Seraphina nodded. Then she pulled up her pant legs to her knees so they could see the deep scars, cuts, and red markings that were there. _Toph is so lucky she's blind…_ Katara thought.

"For once, I think I might be glad that I'm blind," Toph stated, echoing Katara's thoughts. "How'd you two escape?"

Ardere shrugged. "Seraphina did something I guess. I can't remember, I think I was unconscious at the time because they had just…" She broke off, shuddering involuntarily. Seraphina rubbed her shoulder.

"When you found us, we had just escaped a few days earlier. I had been carrying Ardere for the past three days, seeing as she was unconscious… If you hadn't found us… we might not have survived. We thank you," Seraphina said, looking at the ground.

"So are you two benders? Why did the Fire Nation capture you?" Sokka asked eagerly.

"Now that, is going to far," Seraphina stated bluntly. "If you'll excuse me, I need to do something in the woods," she added, meaning that she had to go to the bathroom. She stumbled off, leaving the others sitting in the circle.

------------------------------------------

Again, THANK YOU Twilight Rose2!!! Chapter Four is COMING! Tomorrow, actually. I'm just too lazy to put it up today. If anyone is wondering about Seraphina and Ardere's hair, then it's coming in the 4th chapter! Please R&R!!!!!!! Again, thanks, Twilight Rose2!

Sunny


	4. Dye

**Chapter Four**

"So what's with your hair?" Katara asked Seraphina and Ardere the next day. "Why is it all weird colored?"

"We dyed it," Seraphina said impatiently. "To show that we were different from everyone else."

"In the long run, I suppose it was a bad idea… The Fire Nation probably was able to find us pretty easily… My original hair color was black, and Seraphina's was brown, really," Ardere said thoughtfully in her whispery voice.

"Is it permanent then?" Katara asked curiously.

"No… It should probably wear out in a week or so. Too bad we don't have any more dye. At least we can hide from the Fire Nation now," Seraphina muttered.

That was the end of that conversation. Seraphina could walk almost normally now, though she was still stumbling a lot. Ardere could only walk a couple steps before having to grab onto someone's shoulder. "She was in captivity longer anyways," Seraphina remarked once when Ardere had to grab onto Aang's shoulder for support.

However, Seraphina's snappiness was beginning to get on everyone's nerves. It wasn't going to be long before someone flipped out at her. Toph was the first to snap. Seraphina had just snapped at her when Toph lashed out with Earth-Bending. Seraphina flew back against a rock.

Toph started yelling. "You idiot! What makes you think that you can just treat us like dirt when we saved your life? You even admitted that you were thankful that we saved you! You'd better stop this snappiness or else we're out of here! The only reason we're staying here is because of you! Do you think we like being in one place for a long time? No! So you get your lazy butt in gear and start helping out around here before we kick you and your sister out!" Toph stormed away angrily, leaving Seraphina pinned to the rock.

Ardere, meanwhile, was trying not to laugh. Seraphina glared at her, angrily. "Shut up." Ardere subsided into small hiccups. After that, Seraphina became more helpful, although you could tell that she was secretly fuming about it. One day, when Seraphina was doing the laundry, Katara pulled Toph aside.

"What'd you do to her? She's being nicer!" Katara whispered to Toph.

"Oh, I just told her that it would be nice if she would stop snapping at us and start helping out around here." Toph smiled innocently and walked over to Appa for some reason.

A day later, Seraphina approached Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka with Ardere leaning on her shoulder. "We want to leave," Seraphina said bluntly. "If the Fire Nation finds us, then we're dead. So go ahead to wherever you're going, we're heading off."

A chorus of no's came from Sokka, Aang, and Katara. "Toph…" Katara whispered.

"Hmmm? Oh. No, nonsense! You can't leave, you'll die out there," Toph said a few seconds later. Katara rolled her eyes.

"You should come with us!" Aang suggested brightly. "There's room; Appa can carry two more, I guess."

Seraphina looked surprised at this generosity. "Really? You'd let us come with you…" she said slowly. They nodded. She thought for a second. "Okay, but only until we're well enough to travel alone. By ourselves," she replied.

"Alright! We can leave right now! We just need to pack up camp…" Aang said, frowning as he looked at the campsite.

"On it! This'll only take a few minutes," Katara said.

"Aw, come on, do we have to pack up now?" Sokka moaned. Katara hit him gently in the arm.

"Yes. Now, Ardere, Seraphina, please come down to the river with me for a few minutes. We're going to wash that dye out of your hair," Katara stated firmly, picking up Ardere and walking down to the river. Seraphina followed reluctantly.

Once they were at the river, Ardere lay on the beach with her hair just barely in the water. Katara shook her head. "Nope, you're going to have to get all the way in," she said, looking at Ardere.

Ardere looked at Seraphina, eyes wide. "Don't worry, I've got spare clothes," Katara said trying not to be impatient.

Ardere shrugged and along with her sister, walked, or rather stumbled, into the water until Ardere could kneel in the water without submerging her entire head. Katara followed them. A few minutes later, Katara had washed out all the dye in Ardere's hair. Then, she started to wash the blue out of Seraphina's hair. Ardere looked at her long smooth black hair in the water. Seeing it, she almost cried with remembrance before she was able to fix her composure.

"Done!" Katara said with triumph. Seraphina's blue hair was gone, and in its place was her original light brown hair that matched her brown eyes. They looked each other and laughed. Katara smiled, pleased with her handiwork. "Now the Fire Nation will have a harder time finding you."

"I certainly hope your right; I mean, we'll only be traveling with a giant flying bison! How hard will it be to find us then? I mean, come on, there's hundreds of giant flying bison, so they'll never guess it's us!" Seraphina said sarcastically. Ardere laughed quietly. Katara smiled a half-smile.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get back to camp." With that, she picked up Ardere and, followed by Seraphina, she walked back to camp.

---------------------------------------

Okay, that explains the hair. It was dyed. Now it's washed out. See if you can guess what type of benders they are! No, it's not anything weird, it's one of the normal types: fire, water, earth, or air. Here's a clue. THEY'RE NOT AIRBENDERS. In case anyone was wondering. Again, THANK YOU Twilight Rose2! R&R please! If no one reviews, I'm not putting up the next chapter. At least not until someone reviews.

Sunny!!


	5. Flying At Last

**Chapter Five**

Finally, they were in the air. It had only taken a few minutes after Katara, Ardere, and Seraphina had gotten back to load the stuff up on Appa. Ardere smiled and leaned back, with her face up to the sky. Seraphina was sitting on the edge, looking at the ground below. Aang was resting on Appa's head like always, and Sokka was just sitting somewhere, looking bored. Toph was holding tightly onto the edge of the saddle.

"Hey," said a voice that could only belong to Katara. Sure enough, Katara sat down next to Ardere's head. "Flying is pretty amazing, don't you think?"

Ardere nodded and smiled, closing her eyes to enjoy the rush of air. Katara smiled, looking down at Ardere's peaceful face. She sighed.

Before Katara could say anything, Ardere opened her eyes and turned towards Katara. "Do you ever get used to this?" she asked curiously.

Katara shrugged. "I guess. Doesn't mean that it's not amazing though," Katara said with a slight smile.

Ardere looked back up at the sky. "I don't think I'd ever get used to this," she said thoughtfully. She hesitated for a moment before adding, "No. I'd never get used to this."

Suddenly, Appa swerved sharply. Ardere shrieked as she tumbled over to the side. Katara, Seraphina, and Sokka grasped hold of the saddle tightly as Appa swerved again. Ardere crawled over to her sister and clutched her shoulder tightly. Seraphina's face was grim as she watched Katara struggle up to Aang in front.

"What's going on?" Katara shouted above the wind.

"Fire Nation camp! We flew right over it! They're shooting at us!" Aang shouted back as Appa swerved sharply in the other direction. "Hold on, I'll get us out." Katara nodded grimly.

Ardere buried her head in Seraphina's shoulder. When Seraphina pushed her gently off to go talk to Katara and Aang, she grabbed onto the nearest person. Looking up, she saw that it was Sokka. She blushed. "Oh, sorry," she mumbled and grabbed onto Toph instead who was also terrified.

"I hate flying, I hate flying," Toph whispered under her breath. Ardere closed her eyes and gripped Toph's shoulder tightly.

"I'm not so fond of it either," Ardere whispered back. Toph smiled for a fleeting instant then went back to being terrified.

Meanwhile, Sokka stole a glance at Toph before going over to where Seraphina was talking rather calmly with Aang and Katara, which was rather surprising since she wasn't exactly the calmest person in the world.

"So where are we going?" Sokka asked.

"The mountains," Aang replied. Katara and Seraphina nodded. "We figure that it'll take them a while to find us up there, and also, we can hide out there for a while."

"Okay," Sokka said, nodding his head.

"Did we lose them?" Ardere called out to the group, her head still buried in Toph's shoulder.

Aang looked at the ground. There was no sign of the Fire Nation. He relaxed a bit and said, "Yeah, I think we lost them." He guided Appa towards the not-so-distant mountains.

"So I can open my eyes now?" Ardere asked cautiously.

"Yeah," Seraphina called back, laughing a bit to relieve the tension. Katara smiled tensely.

Ardere let go of Toph's shoulder and opened her eyes. Raising her head, she looked at the others and smiled. She sat up on her knees, still near the edge. Toph, however, continued holding on for dear life.

"Almost there!" Aang called behind them as they approached the mountains. The mountains loomed up in front of them.

Suddenly, a fireball shot up at them. Appa swerved so sharply that he was almost sideways. Seraphina, Aang, Toph, Sokka, and Katara managed to get a hold of something. However, Ardere let out a shrill scream as she toppled into the air.

Seraphina screamed shrilly as her sister fell off Appa. Aang launched himself into the air off Appa, pulling out his glider in the process. Appa righted himself a split second after Aang had leaped off. There was shocked silence as the others sat as stiff as a board as they waited for Aang to come back. Sokka broke the trance that had come over the group by leaping over and taking the reins. He quickly steered Appa over towards the mountains as the others leaned over the side to try to spot Aang. They were unsuccessful.

Finally, Sokka landed Appa inside a cave in the mountains. Toph jumped off, yelling, "Land!" Katara and Seraphina slid off Appa and rushed to the mouth of the cave, searching the skies for Aang and Ardere. Sokka threw all their stuff off Appa and set up a makeshift camp for the night consisting of sleeping bags and a pile of wood that was supposed to be used for a fire, but seeing as everyone was still too much in shock to bother to try lighting it, it remained a pile of wood.

"I'm not one for suggesting things," Sokka said, tiredly. Katara rolled her eyes at this statement. "But I think we should just get some sleep. Aang and Ardere will be here in the morning, you'll see. G'night." With that, he tumbled into his sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep. Toph and Katara were next to follow his example; that is, Appa was already asleep. They fell asleep a few minutes after lying down.

Seraphina walked over to the pile of wood. She bent over it, and with a slight motion of the hand, it was aflame. She smiled at the heat coming from it, and then lay down on her makeshift sleeping bag. A few seconds later, she was asleep like everyone else.

-------------------------------------------

So, what'd you think? Seraphina's a firebender! Good job, everyone who guessed right! Puts a bit of a spin on things, doesn't it? We still don't know what bender Ardere is, but it's pretty obvious if you want to guess. REALLY obvious. (Seriously, I mean come on, you couldn't get more obvious.) Anyways, there's a few more twists coming up in the story! I'm not going to spoil it for you though. R&R please!

Sunny


	6. In The Forest

**Chapter Six**

In the middle of the forest just below the mountains was a tree. On that tree was a slightly damaged glider. And just below that tree sat Aang and Ardere. Both were slightly bruised, and Aang had a shallow scrape on his elbow. Otherwise, they were fine. After Aang had jumped after Ardere, he had pulled out his glider. He managed to grab Ardere and slow their fall, but he ran into a tree with his glider. The glider was on the lowest branch of the tree, and Aang and Ardere had only fallen a few feet.

Aang was sitting on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest to keep himself warm. Ardere seemed fine; she was sprawled out on the ground, drawing in the dirt. Aang looked over at her. He shivered a bit when he saw the red scars on her wrists, then he scooted over to see what she was drawing.

"What're you drawing?" he asked curiously. She looked up startled and quickly covered it up.

"I'm not done!" she said, pushing him back. "I'll show you when I'm done." She went back to drawing with her finger in the dirt.

Aang shrugged and walked over to where his glider was. With a gust of air, he leaped up to the branch and grabbed his glider, pulling it down to the ground. He sighed unhappily. The glider was damaged, not that badly, but just bad enough so that it wouldn't fly. He scuffed the dirt with his shoe. At least they were at the bottom of the mountain, so that all that was left was having to get through the remaining yards of forest then climbing the mountain up to wherever Sokka and the others were.

Aang turned back to Ardere. "Hey, are you done yet? If you are, can we please try to figure out a way to get up the mountains?" he asked, kind of impatiently.

Ardere looked at him, her black hair swirling in her face. "Why it's simple, Aang," she started. "We just get up and follow this map out of the forest and up the mountains." Ardere pulled a map out of a hidden pocket in her trousers.

Aang jumped a bit, leaping over to her, to look at the map. He unfolded it. In it was a detailed map of the forest and mountains. "Where'd you get this?" he asked incredulously, looking at her.

"It's Seraphina's, actually. She gave it to me before we split up so that we could meet up around here. The Fire Nation never bothered to search me, so…" Ardere shrugged, smiling a bit.

In Aang's rush to see the map, he had smudged the dirt over her drawing. He realized this a few minutes after pouring over the map. Ardere was just sitting there, looking at where he was standing and the smudged drawing next to it. Aang followed her gaze and gasped.

"I'm so sorry," he exclaimed. "I didn't know that it was right there. I was just… the map… I'm so sorry…" Ardere stopped his flustered apology.

"It's okay. You didn't smudge it that much, really," she said, gently moving him away from the ruined drawing. He bent down to sit next to her, brushing against her in the process. A shiver ran up his spine, but it was a good type of shiver, not the bad type.

"Who is it?" he asked, gesturing at the drawing, for it was definitely the picture of someone's face. It looked rather familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place his finger on who it might be.

"He's my stepbrother," Ardere said sadly. She took her hand and wiped out his face, smudging it completely.

Aang noticed the sadness in her tone. "Did something happen to him? He's… still alive, right?"

Ardere looked into his light blue eyes and was slightly startled to see a sympathetic gaze there mixed with… something else. She smiled and replied, "Yes, he's still alive. He's just a bit… lost, to put it that way. Not literally, but…" She shook her head sadly. She stared at the ground silently.

Aang nodded his head, actually understanding what she was trying to say. A few seconds silence passed, and he was just wondering if it would be okay for him to put his arm around her to comfort her when she stood up.

"We should get going," she said abruptly.

Aang stood up too, realizing that she was actually about an inch shorter than he was. He spent a few seconds feeling tall, during which he went to get his glider. Ardere was waiting for him patiently. Aang joined her, and together they walked through to the forest until they reached the edge of the forest just before the base of the mountain.

Ardere spoke up. "Aang," she said. He turned to look at her. "We should camp here. I don't know about you, but I haven't the strength to climb that in one night. Plus, we don't exactly know where the others are. Might as well try to make camp here."

"That's probably a good idea," Aang said. "I can go try to get some wood for fire, if you'd like to see if you can find something that will do for blankets."

Ardere nodded, and Aang set off into the woods, accidentally brushing against Ardere on his way out. He mumbled an apology and hurried out so Ardere couldn't see his cheeks redden. Ardere's face flushed a bit, and then she wandered around a bit looking for anything they could use for blankets. She found a tree with a low-hanging branch and hoisted herself up into the network of branches. She shook down quite a few leaves and carried two piles to the place where Aang had set his glider down. She was returning with the third pile when Aang got back. She set the leaves down on the other two piles and looked at the branches he had brought back to make a fire. Aang dropped them down on the ground and looked at the pile of leaves.

"Wow, where'd you find all those leaves?" he asked, before remembering that they were still in the forest and that trees had leaves.

Ardere looked at him curiously and refrained from saying what sounded like something Seraphina would say. Instead she brought up the branches. "I'm not entirely sure a fire would be a good idea," she said. "We're in a forest; we don't want to burn it down. Plus, do you know how to make a fire?"

Aang could see the truth in her words. "Good point," he commented.

"I was thinking that since the pile of leaves really isn't that big, we should… um…" she paused, trying to think of how to word it.

"Use the same pile?" Aang finished for her. She smiled at him. "It's a good idea. If we keep the leaves together, then we'll be warmer than if we had them spread out."

Ardere nodded then burrowed under the leaves until she was comfortable lying on her side, facing the outside. A few seconds later, she felt Aang's warm presence next to her. Ardere smiled to herself, and soon her breathing was steady and her thoughts were calm and pleasant.

-------

Well, sorry that I haven't updated in AGES. Just haven't gotten around to writing because of NaNo and such. Anyways, tell me what you think!

Sunny


End file.
